Friday, November 27, 2015

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Trump-Mania?

David Frum took up the cause of proposing yet another plan for how "the establishment" can bring down Donald Trump. His suggestion is that the driving force behind Trump-mania is immigration, and so they should call out Trump for hiring undocumented workers and flip-flopping on the issue. I personally don't think that will work any better than all the other ideas that have either been tried or discussed so far.

But in the course of setting that up, he buried the kicker.

Now the same party leaders who insisted that Sarah Palin could do the job of president, if need be, want to persuade the rank-and-file that Trump can’t? Good luck with that.

Boom! That is essentially what Martin said the other day. They took this genie out of the bottle and now they can't figure out how to get it back in.

As a reminder, the religious right were no fans of John McCain in 2008 after he took them on in the 2000 primary against George W. Bush. Mike Huckabee was their man. So McCain flipped the conventional wisdom and ran as a centrist during the primary and then had to make up some ground with the far right to prepare for the general election. Hence, he brought us Sarah Palin.

When Republicans lost that race to Barack Obama, they tapped into all the energy Palin had stirred up in their base in an attempt to delegitimize the election and fuel their obstruction. Those are the same flames Donald Trump is exploiting today.

You truly Mr. GOP whatever, underestimated the voter here. In voter, I am speaking of the TRUMP VOTER . The one who knows the games, the drills, and will never vote for any other GOP candidate no matter what you do. I, myself will vote for Micky Mouse before I vote for any other than Trump!

You have just ruined the club you call a party. You are a private entity and it is now obvious what you all do. So puppet controllers for the puppet masters. Go to ….your elections on your own. I am done with you and America wants Trump and we will vote for Donald Trump either third party or on your lousy ticket. You, however, are done. Broken, and over. You have had your last party, enjoy it!

Her commenters obviously agree. Here's just the first one:

I knew the GOP wasn’t to be trusted, they hate Trump, they can’t control him because he is his own man. I know I am not the only one that will vote for him and no one else, whether he runs GOP or 3rd Party. He has the vision, the intelligence and the guts to do what is right for America and its people, he owes no one and he will make the tough decisions. He’s not interested in being PC he’s interested in saving this Nation. The GOP should be ashamed, they should be backing Trump all the way, but that would be against everything they believe in….their own self interests. Go Trump will be heard loud and clear across the land and this will backfire on you establishment GOP’rs!!!!!

Nothing anyone says about Trump is going to change these people's mind. Attacks on him only reinforce what they already believe - which is that the Republican Party has abandoned them and is terminally broken. The Grand Old Party created an insurgency that is now turning on them. That's what Trump-mania is coming down to.

Of course it won't work. You can't reason with a rabid pit bull. The establishment "stop Trump" campaign is already faltering.

The monster has finally escaped the control of its creator and gone on an unstoppable rampage. Thing is, that monster isn't Trump, it's the troglodytes who support him. Even if the establishment could somehow turn them against Trump, they'd still be there, looking for the next Trump.

The party has been winning elections by whipping up the ignorant into a state of permanent rage and mistrust. It should have seen that eventually that rage and mistrust would be turned against it.

I don't see any way out. Either Trump gets the nomination, Hillary beats him in a landslide, and the Republicans alienate any remaining decent conservatives because they nominated a fascist -- or, the establishment robs Trump of the nomination by some blatant trickery, he runs third-candidate and peels off all his enraged fans, Hillary wins in an even bigger landslide, and the right wing is irrevocably split.

Back when they invited the Falwell/Bryant types and the Southern bitter-ender bigots into their tent, they made a deal with the Devil. It served them well for decades. Now the Devil has come round to collect.